Issue 3: 20^th of December 2013

REPLACE 2 participates in the 8th European Forum of the Rights of the Child

Members representing the partnership will take part in the 8th European Forum on the Rights of the Child, organised by the European Commission. The Forum, which is held once a year, gathers a number of professionals working in the field of children's rights -. A session dedicated to 'The role of child protection systems in protecting children from violence - Female Genital Mutilation' will be of special relevance for the partnership, as Naana Otoo-Oyortey, Executive Director of FORWARD, will be one of the experts presenting the topic. The partnership will also have the chance to discuss actions taken in Europe against this practice with other stakeholders.

For more information please see the website here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/events/child-forum-2013/ And the background paperhere:http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/s4_forum_fgm_en.pdf

On November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the REPLACE behaviour change approach was presented in a press release issued by the European Commission on the topic of FGM. Please see the press release here: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1153_en.htm

From November to December 2013, the REPLACE 2 Coordinator Dr. David Beecham, led a series of methodological workshops in Lisbon (Portugal), Barcelona (Spain) and Palermo (Italy) on how to use the NVivo® software that will be used for data analysis. The visit to partners' offices was also an opportunity for Coventry University to better understand the local situation in which REPLACE 2 is being implemented, and to meet the community based researchers who are conducting focus groups and interviews with their FGM affected communities.

In November 2013, REPLACE 2 was presented in Barcelona to a group of professionals working in the fields of health, security bodies and social services, as well as to community members from Gambia, Senegal and Ghana who are living in Matarò (Barcelona), in the framework of the project "PLENA" (Prevention and Fight against Female Genital Mutilation), coordinated by Gabinet's partner CEPAIM.

In October 2013, APF carried out a Workshop about awareness-raising on FGM addressed to trainers from Portuguese Employment Services in Lisbon.

During the Islamic feast of sacrifice (September 2013) a group of Somali women took part in a discussion about behaviour change with FSAN. During the discussion the women, who belonged to a community living in the Netherlands, showed that they were eager to share and give their opinion on the research about behaviours acting as barriers to end FGM in their families and communities.

REPLACE 2 is a two year project being funded by the European Commission. This project follows the successful completion of REPLACE I in 2011. REPLACE 2 is the product of the cooperation of six European countries, England (Coventry University and FORWARD UK), the Netherlands (FSAN), Italy (CESIE), Portugal (APF), Spain (Gabinet) and Belgium (Ghent University). REPLACE 2 will implement and evaluate the behavioural change and community-based Toolkit developed by REPLACE 1. Partners will work directly with FGM-affected communities in the EU to understand the barriers to behavioural change and therefore develop tailored interventions which community groups and NGOs can use in future efforts to bring about the end of FGM in the EU and beyond.

Current Activities

APF, CESIE and Gabinet are continuing to conduct focus groups with community members in Lisbon, Palermo and Barcelona in order to identify barriers to ending FGM in Europe. These research activities are implemented by Community Based Researches who have been trained by the partners. This is giving them the possibility to experiment a field of research and at the same time to be part of the behavioural change process in their communities. The findings from the first data analysis are expected to be issued in January 2014.

Forward UK and FSAN, coordinated by Coventry University, are planning the implementation of Intervention workshops based on the results from the previous Daphne III-funded project, REPLACE. The outputs from these workshops will be used to update the REPLACE Toolkit, and will be utilised by APF, CESIE and Gabinet in their future intervention activities with communities affected by FGM.

Relevant Publications 

Dr David Beecham conducting the Methodological Workshop 2 in Palermo (Italy)

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(REPLACE 2 Project Number: JUST/2011-2012/DAP/AG)
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